The Monastery of New Justice

The architectural ensemble of Getik is situated in a woody gorge on the banks of the Getik River, 120 km north-east from Yerevan. In the 12th– 13th, centuries it was considered to be one of the most important centers of enlightenment. There were gymnasium, a seminary, a university, as well as a library functioning on its territory. The founder of this hearth of medieval culture was the famous author of fables and jurist Mkhitar Gosh. So the complex was renamed Goshavank after his death. He was the author of Law Book, which was subsequently translated into European languages and had substantial influence on the elaboration of statutes in a number of countries.
The revolutionary achievements of medieval Armenia would have certainly been unfeasible without the proper attitude and decisive role played by Church, which was the only stable institution of state power at the time. Defending Christianity with incredible effort and manipulating the interests of powerful states, the Armenian clergy did encourage free creative work and unrestricted expression of ideas. In the 12th–13th centuries, not fearing to be proclaimed a heretic, Mkhitar Gosh wrote, “God created the human being free, while dependence on masters has sprung from the need of soil and water”. In those days, however, ideologists of western Christianity engaged in utterly different things. They tried to ground social inequality on supreme will.